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Too many of my bad memories took place in a building just like the one I was in. Squeezing Adam’s hand with my own, I tried to focus and not let my mind drift to dark places.
“You’ve never seen these men before today?”
I sighed, exhaustion pulling at me as I reminded myself that the detective was just doing his job and wasn’t trying to annoy the hell out of me. Twisting my hair, I pulled it over my shoulder, desperately wishing I had a hair tie.
A white band appeared in front of my face, the hand that held it, bloody and swollen. Reaching out, I inspected it, recognizing the elastic as one of the many I kept in my bathroom drawer. Giving Adam a curious look, he shrugged and I was surprised to see a blush staining his cheeks. Biting my lip to hold back my smile, I gathered my thick hair into a ponytail and secured it with the band, instantly grateful to have it out of the way.
“Ms. Delgado?” The detective’s voice broke through the intimate moment.
“No, I’ve never seen them before.” I reached out and clasped Adam’s hand with my own when he let out a grunt of annoyance. Clearly, we were both done with the questions.
“She already answered that. Do you not believe her or are you just stupid?” He must have moved his leg because the doctor clicked his tongue in annoyance and looked at all of us like we were a group of misbehaving toddlers.
When he’d walked in, same greying hair, same thick glasses, I’d been transported to the last time Adam had been hurt and bleeding. I didn’t know how many doctors worked in this particular emergency room but Dr. Glasscock had not been happy to see Adam again. There’d been a lecture about considering a safer occupation before he’d started to stitch the long gash in Adam’s calf.
“I know it’s been a stressful day for y’all, but I need to get the facts while it’s fresh in your mind, Ms. Delgado.” The detective’s eyes shifted to the side when Adam growled and then came back to me. I was impressed, there weren’t a lot of people who could ignore six feet, five inches of angry Adam Gage. I was also pretty sure he was using my last name as much as possible because it seemed to piss off Adam.
“I understand. How about I start from the beginning and if you have any questions, you can stop me?” The detective nodded his shaggy brown head.
He wasn’t bad looking, I’d place him around Adam’s age, early thirties probably. He was in good shape, wearing jeans and a dark blue polo with the police department’s logo embroidered on the left breast. I didn’t know much about detectives or cops in general and I’d been surprised he wasn’t wearing a uniform. Although he still sported a duty belt with handcuffs, his gun and a few other items.
“Like I said, there wasn’t anything out of the normal when Adam dropped me off at the shop fifteen minutes before we opened…”
Adam gave me a searing kiss with a few whispered promises of ‘later.’ I’d practically floated into the store, blushing when Gemma gave me a knowing smile and a lifted eyebrow.
We’d chatted and laughed while we set up for the day, taking our time with the morning tasks. It wasn’t the kind of business where you had customers lining up outside waiting for the doors to open and Gemma got a lot of orders through her website and over the phone. There was some foot traffic throughout the day but the store had been quiet all morning.
Gemma always had music of some kind playing softly on the speakers throughout the store. Lately, she’d been on a lo-fi hip-hop kick and it was relaxing and easy to ignore at the same time.
Which is why the screeching of tires on our normally calm street immediately drew my eyes to the windows. I’d been watering a grouping of button ferns toward the back of the store next to the register. Gemma was in the back, working on arrangements for the Carters’ fiftieth wedding anniversary party.
We were lucky, really freaking lucky that we weren’t rearranging the window displays and had decided to wait until the afternoon. I’d watched as the two men jumped from the back of the white van, arms weighed down with the heavy blocks and in unison they hurled them through Gemma’s pretty painted windows.
I’d had enough sense to drop the full can, water splashing all over the floor as I dove behind the counter. Gemma appeared moments later, a look of horror on her usually calm face. It was quickly replaced with rage when the two men jumped through the shattered windows and came toward us.
She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the back room where there was a door that led to the alley behind the building. We’d almost made it when one of them grabbed my upper arm and yanked so hard I was surprised it didn’t tear from the socket.
Gemma screamed when the other asshole grabbed her long blonde hair. She whirled, catching him by surprise and landing a haymaker to the side of his head like she was Layla Ali. He recovered quickly and backhanded her hard enough that her head snapped to the side.
Fury boiled inside my veins at seeing my friend hurt. I started to fight, slap and kick anywhere I could reach. I didn’t know what they wanted from us but I knew it wasn’t good.
“Which one is it?” The one that had me shouted over my screaming.
“Don’t know, he just said to get the girl. Let’s take ‘em both and maybe he’ll let us keep whichever one he don’t want.” Gemma’s wide eyes met mine as a new fear settled inside my gut.
We fought even harder, both of us knowing that if we got in that van we were screwed. But they were big. Much bigger than either of us in both height and weight. They had muscles that Gemma’s willowy frame and my short stature lacked.
The guy holding me dragged me outside, my gaze flying to the building across the street. The windows to Falls Security were also broken. I leaned my body as far back as I could and dug my heels in, hoping to slow the guy down and buy us some time. Adam was coming for me, I knew it down in my bones, I could feel him getting closer.
I smiled when he leapt through the broken window like a superhero and sprinted toward me. He looked terrifying and furious as his long legs ate up the distance between us. Taking advantage of my distraction, the man now had me in a bear hug against the front of his body. Adam wasn’t slowing down and I needed to get out of the way so he didn’t have to worry about hurting me.
One arm was trapped but the other was free, I curved my nails toward my palm and clawed at the man’s face. As I’d hoped, he dropped me to the ground and gave Adam the opening he needed. I’d barely gotten my feet under me and Adam was on him, fists flying, unintelligible words spilling from his lips.
If I had seen this side of Adam Gage just a month ago, it would’ve sent me running. But, not now. Adam and I had done a lot of talking, late at night when the stars were out and Miles was asleep. He’d held me close while he stared at the ceiling, recounting some of the terrible things he’d had to do, things that haunted him and invaded his dreams night after night.
It’d been scary thinking about the person he’d had to become, the person he’d been. When I’d asked if he ever thought he could do it again, he hadn’t hesitated in saying yes. That if anyone ever tried to hurt me or Miles that he wouldn’t feel a single regret for what he would do.
The proof of that statement was now staring me in the face. He was going to kill this man if I didn’t stop him. That meant he’d be taken away from me and I’d never let that happen. Because as much as Adam felt it was his job to protect me, it was just as much my job to protect him.
